Search for Gold

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 5618, 6 April 1931, Page 10

Search for Gold

AUSTRALIAN OPTIMISTS. PLENTY OF RABBITS FOUND. SYDNEY, March 25. It is estimated that 3000 men are now engaged in the search for gold in New South Wales alone. This is one of the direct results of unemployment in the city. There have been minor rushes to all the reputed gold-bearing districts, but so far few of the prospectors have gained much success. To approved prospectors the Government allows £1 a week for four weeks, and after that they collect the dole. The men find living on the goldfields cheaper than in the city, and in many instances whole families have been transported from Sydney to the primitive home which the prospector has been able to prepare —-a home of canvas and bark. At many of the camps a grain or so of gold is the sole reward for a week of back-breaking and heartbreaking work, but that grain is enough to keep the prospector at his self-im-posed task. Experts agree that there is as much gold in New South Wales as has been won from the State—perhaps more. Is it any wonder therefore that more men are lured each week to likely fields. Practically all grades of society are represented on the fields. They arc not the riff-raff or the “unemployables,” but include men who not long ago occupied sound positions that gave them every reason to regard the life ahead of them as an easy, settled proposition. There arc lawyers, accountants, clerks and even doctors. Of course, most of them are “new chums,” and that might account for the fact that to date very little gold has been found. It takes an experienced miner, it is said, to find gold in areas that, have already been prospected. Still, there is always the possibility that some day even the beginner will strike it rich. The most favoured area is that vast stretch of country bounded by the towns of Bathurst, Molong, Yeovil, Wellington, Gulgong, Mudgce, Capertree. This area includes many famous fields. One prospector at El Dorado was very disgusted. “I always thought El Dorado was a very rich place” ho said. “The chap who named this must have been thinking of rabbits. There arc plenty of rabbits here, and that is about all we can find. And they don’t take any looking for.” One man arrived at his claim two months ago in a sedan car. He was formerly the manager of a big city business, which has been compelled to close its door. He is not getting enough gold.to pay for his “tucker,” and when he gdes to the nearest town for Lis “dole” he walks, as he has not enough money to pay for the petrol his car would use on the journey. 4 Experts say-that many of the “new chums” are blundering along without any hope of success. It is suggested that the Government should provide a mining engineer in each district, so that advice could be given to those who need it.